20 Lange, Bessemer, Gorans son and MusJiet. 



to some pieces of Bessemer's pneumatised iron supplied 

 to him by Thomas Brown, the then managing partner of 

 the Ebbw Vale Iron Works, and made an ingot from the 

 same that was sound and free from red-shortness. On 

 September 22nd, 1856, or about five weeks after Besse- 

 mer's paper at Cheltenham, he proceeded to draw up a 

 patent specification in which he claimed the addition of 

 a triple metallic compound of iron, manganese, and 

 carbon, to cast iron which had been decarburized by any 

 process of forcing air through molten cast iron. By the 

 bad advice of his friends at Ebbw Vale, this process was, 

 however, coupled to that of Mr. S. G. Martien, to which I 

 shall refer again. Mr. Brown's firm, later, made difficulties 

 about the setting up of the necessary apparatus, and 

 Mushet called to his aid a Mr. S. H, Blackwell, who found 

 the money for this. The experiments were successful, 

 and the complete specification was filed in March, 1857. 

 The patent was thus arranged : the Ebbw Vale Co., one 

 moiety interest; Blackwell, one quarter interest; and 

 Mushet, one quarter interest. Prior to this, Bessemer had 

 paid Mushet a visit at Coleford with the evident intention 

 of obtaining his friendly co-operation, but Mushet felt 

 himself tied to the Ebbw Vale Co. and nothing came 

 of this. Pending the filing of the complete specification, 

 the Ebbw Vale Co. were advised by some expert 

 (wrongly) that the spiegel could not mix properly with 

 the blown metal, and that Mushet's claim was worthless. 

 Brown and Blackwell then omitted to pay the third 

 year's stamp duty, and the process became public pro- 

 perty. Mushet says : — 



"No doubt I might have sued them, but I had neither 

 "health nor means of fighting a battle with them in a court 

 " of law, besides which both ]3lackwell and Brown had been 

 "personally kind friends to me, and both were then in 

 "hopeless difficulties.'' 



